Oxford’s Cathedral
The Cathedral is the College Chapel as well as the cathedral church for the Diocese of Oxford. The beautiful building is home to a vibrant worshipping community and hosts a wide range of events, music, art and drama.
Christ Church has a distinguished history and its special character is inseparable from that history. It is unique among Oxford colleges in that it also contains the Cathedral of the Oxford diocese, which doubles as the college chapel. This joint foundation goes back to the establishment of the institution (initially known as Cardinal College) by Henry VIII’s right-hand man Cardinal Wolsey, whose fall from power led to Henry taking over the project and renaming it Christ Church (1546). Henry VIII had a big ego and Christ Church is unquestionably a grandiose set of buildings, but the people who inhabit them are just as friendly and low-key as those elsewhere.
On a tour of the Cathedral, you will learn more about the fascinating history of this extraordinary building from its origins as an Anglo-Saxon Church in the time of St Frideswide, its life as an Augustinian monastery in the Middle Ages, to its current status as College Chapel and Cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford.